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Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Momentum Ventures Winding Down, Says Report

Los Angeles-based Momentum Ventures, the venture acceleration and funding firm, is no longer making investments and is winding down, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal. According to Andy Wilson, Managing Director and Founder of the firm, in an interview with socalTECH, the move actually had happened gradually over the last year, as the various principals at the firms became more involved and interested in running portfolio companies. Wilson has been serving as CEO of startup Graphight, which is developing software for managing professional relationships and contacts; co-founder Matt Ridenour left back in March of 2010 to join The People Fund, and former Managing Director Stu Macfarlane had taken the reigns of portfolio firm iChange, which was recently sold to Herbalife. Momentum had not maintained a major investment fund, only a small bridge fund to help its portfolio companies to their next venture round. Wilson said the last investment of the firm had been in November, when the fund invested in Hollywood-based Datapop. "Company building and putting together a portfolio was great," Wilson explained, but that the move into the firm's portfolio firms allowed the principals to "go back to where our true passions are" on the operational side of companies. Wilson was an executive and GM at Overture before Momentum; MacFarlane was founder and CEO of Insider Pages, and also had been at Idealab.